Apparatus for making railway sleepers



Flled Dec T WEYMERSKIRCH APPARATUS FOR MAKING RAILWAY SLEEPERS June 241924.

Patented ,inne 2-, i924.

FFHCE.

TEEGDOR VE-YJIERSKIRCH, OF DIFFERDANGE, LUXEMBURG.

APPARATUS FOR lizKll'G RALWAY SLEEPERS.

Application filed December 14, 1923.

To all wiz om may concern Be it known that I, Tistnonon lVnvMnnsnniorr,engineer,'a subject of the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg, residing atDifferdange, Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, Rue de lAcier (no number), haveinvented certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for MakingRailway Sleepers, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to a process of manufacturing ironsleepers, whereof the downward bent edges of the holes are, with a viewof reinforcement, flanged in a second operation and then upset.

it has been found, in the manufacture of iron sleepers, that it isunsatisfactory to stamp the holes out, whether hot or cold, because thefibers of the laminatedmetal are cut through and the sleeper is weakenedat the points receiving the greatest stress. Owing to the continuouslychanging work` ing stress, the edges of the holes are torn, moreespecially at the corners and the sleeper becomes unserviceable.

lt has been proposed to Velin'iinede this drawback by bending theborders of -thc holes downward like a collar instead of stamping themout. But this does not prevent the formation of rents because the libersof the laminated metal remained unprotected against the pullingstresses.

According to the present invention, the downward bent edges of the holesare flanged in a second operation and then upset. In this way, thesleeper is considerably strengthened at the rail seat and theypossibility of breaking of the edges of the holes therein minimized.

In the accompanying drawing- F ig. l shows the working methoddiagrammatically.

Figs. 2 and 3 show on an enlarged scale, sections through the punchingtools before and after the operation.

Fig. 4e is a section through the flanging tool.

Figs. 5 and 6 are sectional and plan views, respectively, of thesleeper.

The rolled bar coming from the rolling mill is out, in the well knownway, to the necessary length and is fed by means of a lifting device t(Fig. l) to a flanging machine Z) where it is flanged. are then heatedin a furnace c to a uniform temperature, in order to assure the eXact-The sleepers' Serial No. 680,748.

distances of the `holes to be punched in accordance with vthe gauge ofthe track.

From the furnace c, the sleepers travel into va press d -where thenecessary number of holes vis punched therein. The tools of the pressare regulated exactly to the temperature the sleeper has receivedinthe'fur nace so that, after complete cooling of the.

sleeper, the distance between the holes will be exactly thatof atrack-gauge.

rThe punching tools mounted on the ram of the press d (Figs. 2 and 3)consist off a punching and flanging mandrel f, the yflanging female dieg and the snap headdie 7L. The sleeper t having been placed by means ofthe lifting device a on `the table of the press d, the ram @goes downwith the punch ingand AHanging mandrel f on the piece to be worked and.cuts it open at the places where the holes are to be produced, asshownin dotted lines in Fig. 2. k"Up to then .the snap head die /L has servedas anvil,.in.order to prevent `4the material to :be worked ,from beingtorn.

The snap head die It now moves downward, at a somewhat greater speedthan the ram, so that the mandrel f vmay moveto the position shown inFig. 3. The mandrel f continuing to move downward, vthe cleft wings jare bent into :the femaledie-g and the opening-Vis thus produced infthesleeper forrthe tenons of bearing plates or for the clip bolts.

rlhe snap head die L is provided With a hole n, enabling the point ofthe mandrel f to completely pierce the sleeper. Material eventuallyfalling off, during the operation, may fall through the hole u and thegroove o of the wedge lc. This wedge ,7c may also be replaced by anyother suitable device, for instance eccentrics, cam discs and the like.

During the subsequent upward movement of the ram e, the snap head diealso raises under the action of the wedge c and pushes out of the femaledie g thev edges of the holes y' which have been pressed out.; thesleeper t is lifted, carried by the lifting de vice a. off thepress-table z' (Fig. l) and placed into the tipping device Z, ahead ofit. This tipping device turns the sleeper through 180 so as to invertit.

At the next stroke of the lifting device a the sleeper' is placed on thetable m of the press n. l/Vhile the ram 0 to which are fixed the/pressing and the hanging tools (Fig. Ll) moves downward, the mandrelj?, the dimensions of which correspond exactly with the desiredtransversal section of the holes, enters the aperture and the presserplate g presses the edges of the holes down" into the position r.

The mandrel p acts in this case as a gauge guided exactly by the femaledie. The mandrel p and the presser plate Q as well as the female die sare mounted on their saddles, in the axis of the sleeper, so as to beable to move to and fro `for a few millimeters, so that the distancebetween the holes of the sleepers may not be altered by a too rigidconnection of the flanging tools. On the contrary, the tools Awill adaptthemselves automatically to the predetermined distances of the holes.Simultaneously with the Hanging, the sleep er z5 receives, by means ofdressing tools mounted on the ram o, a slight pressure over its wholelength, so that parts that might have been bent are straightened. Thesleeper which is now finished is then lifted in the known manner ofi?the table m, by means of the lifting device and placed on an automaticconveyer of any known construction. r:Chis conveyer carries the sleepersto the stock yard or, if they are to be tarred into a tarringbath. Thesupports for the sleepers, on their way between the flangingmachine Y)and the press 'n have preferably a shape corresponding to that of thesleepers or vthey are shifted exactly in the same way by a shiftingdevice in orde-r to assure the exact position of the sleepers after eachstroke and thus avoids wrong positions. A

Of course, the pressing out, according to Figs. 2 and 3 could just aswell be carriedY out simultaneously with the Hanging of the extremitiesof the sleepers, but this would be prejudicial to the exactness of thepunching.

rlhe whole process requires but little at tendance because all themovements are cari ried out automatically by the movements of the ram ofthe press or forcibly by a separate driving` gear. @wing to thesiniplieity andr to the solidity of the tools, disturbances are ratherout of question. 'lhe product is a first class one all the operatic sbeing carried out at a warm temperature.

The inventioni is also applicable to all important iron buildings suchas bridges, ov rhead cranes, halls and so on whierc1 for the sake ofsecurity, the holes for the rivets and screws may not be pressed out`but only drilled. Y of the edges of the holes, while the pie are warm,also results in a more resistan` material than pieces with drilled holesand the holes produced according to the present invention will resistthe greatest stresses.

Having now fully described my invention, what l claim and desire tolsecr-.ire by Letter Patent is:

ln an apparatus of the character described, a device for formingopenings in articles, al device for upsetting the edges of the openings,said devices being sp ed apart, and means intermediate the devi if forreceiving articles operated upon by the first device and inverting themfor delivery7 to the second device.

In testimony whereof l affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

THEODOR VE'YMERSKIRGH.

l/Vitnesses CHR. BENNOUR, M. Esrrns.

The bending or Hanging

